Jeannette DePalma went missing in August 1972 and her body was found six weeks later

Six weeks later, a dog walking in woods near Jeannette’s home in Springfield, New Jersey, ran back to its owner with a badly decomposed arm.

The grisly find led to police discovering the teenager’s body nearby – and sparked a mystery embroiled in rumours of witchcraft and Satanic rituals, which remains unsolved to this day.

Jeanette’s body was found on a ridge known as The Devil’s Teeth and local witnesses said it was surrounded by a series of strange, occult objects with the remains of dead animals hanging from nearby trees.

Although wildly different accounts exist of the murder scene, the most consistent detail was that the body was inside a coffin-shaped structure made from fallen branches and logs, with several makeshift crosses around it.

Rumours of black magic and Satanic cults were rife and some locals blamed a coven of teenage witches who had vowed to abduct and kill a child.

The post-mortem failed to quash the rumours, as the exact cause of death could not be determined and a likely cause was listed as strangulation.

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One wrote: “I was a young teenager when the discovery of Jeannette DePalma happened, and lived in the next town.

“About two years prior, there was much talk in my school about a cult in the surrounding area. They were known as The Witches.

“They must have let it be known in the area that they planned to kill a child on or about Halloween, either by kidnapping and sacrificing them or by poison. I remember being anxious about this because I went trick-or-treating in those days.”

Another letter, from the relative of a local policeman, read: “When the dog brought the arm home and the search for the body started, they found arrows carved in the trees that would lead you to the body.

Weird NJ writer Mark Moran investigated the case for a book, Death on the Devil’s Teeth

“All around her body were dead animals tied to trees with string and some in jars. Shortly thereafter there were reports of animals being mutilated and hung in the same fashion in the Watchung Reservation, which is also very close to the scene of the crime.

“The Watchung Reservation or the “Res” has been reported to be the centre of devil worship activity for years.”

Some believe that Jeannette’s death was the work of a serial killer, who struck again in 1974 in Montvale, NJ, where the bodies of two young girls were found in the woods.

They had been beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled.

Their killer was never found but many have dismissed this theory as there was no suggestion of a sexual assault on Jeannette.

With most of the police files gone, it seems the mystery of Jeannette’s murder will never be solved.

Other unsolved crimes in America include the murder of Betsy Aardsma, butchered in her university library in 1969, and the strange case of Black Dahlia, the Hollywood starlet found naked and chopped in half in 1947.